Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, on Wednesday announced that two Vietnamese start-ups – AI Hay and Kompato AI (the generative AI subsidiary of Trusting Social) – have been selected for a programme that will help them scale up and potentially allow them to gain funding.

The programme, called the AWS Global Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Accelerator programme, offers them a raft of bespoke tech tools.

The homegrown early-stage start-ups are among 80 selected by AWS worldwide for their innovative use of AI and their global growth ambitions.

“AI Hay is thrilled to have been accepted into the AWS Generative AI Accelerator. Being part of this programme is a major milestone for us,” said CEO of AI Hay, Đức Trần.

“The programme will enable us to accelerate our AI development and scale our solutions to new heights. We look forward to collaborating with industry experts and fellow innovators in this transformative journey.”

This opportunity will support AI Hay’s efforts to be a Large Language Model (LLM)-powered Knowledge Discovery Platform designed for people speaking low-to-medium resource languages, empowering them with access to collective intelligence through thoughtful merging of search, social and AI.

Kompato AI offers consumer lending institutions a full-stack AI Platform for Account Receivable Management that delivers robust compliance, scalability and efficiency.

“The AWS Generative AI Accelerator will help Kompato AI efficiently scale our solution across Asia and America,” said CEO of Kompato AI, Dr Nguyễn An Nguyên. “Kompato AI is heartened to be a part of the programme and the chance for us to showcase how generative AI can create new ways to innovate in our industry. We look forward to the journey together with our fellow builders and industry experts.”

As part of AWS’s US$230 million commitment to accelerate the creation of applications worldwide, the AWS Generative AI Accelerator programme provides start-ups, especially early-stage companies, with AWS credits, mentorship and education.

Participants gain access to AWS computing, storage and database technologies, as well as AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia2, energy-efficient AI chips that offer high performance at the lowest cost.

The credits can also be used on Amazon SageMaker, a fully-managed service that helps companies build and train their own foundation models (FMs), as well as to access models and tools to easily and securely build generative AI applications through Amazon Bedrock.

The ten-week programme will start on September 30 and match participants with both business and technical mentors based on their industry. Chosen startups will receive up to $1 million each in AWS credits to help them build, train, test and launch their generative AI solutions. Participants will also have access to technology and technical sessions from program presenting partner NVIDIA, a pioneer in accelerated computing.

“Start-ups are the lifeblood of innovation - our $230 million commitment and global expansion of the Generative AI Accelerator reflects our continued dedication to support them in their journey to developing incredible solutions with generative AI,” said Priya Lakshmi, Head of Startups ASEAN, AWS.

“Startups like AI Hay are at the forefront of a transformative new wave, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with artificial intelligence while bringing exciting new solutions to market.

"We are incredibly proud of how these pioneers are driving the transformation of industries and improve the way we work.”

According to PitchBook Data, Inc, 765 AI and ML companies have raised funding in Việt Nam, with over $47.3 million in investment to date in 2024. However, only 35 per cent of generative AI companies globally have offices in locations outside their headquarter country, revealing that much more can be done to support these local businesses to expand globally. — VNS